CRIME BRIEFS

A 79-year-old male sus­pect has been charged with two counts of sex­ual as­sault in re­la­tion to crimes dat­ing back to 2005 to 2007. York Re­gional Po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tors were ap­proached by the vic­tim, who cited in­ci­dents that oc­curred when she was un­der the age of 16. The sus­pect is be­lieved to have as­saulted the vic­tim dur­ing pi­ano lessons, which took place at the vic­tim’s home in Rich­mond Hill. In­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve there may be ad­di­tional vic­tims and have asked them to come for­ward.

A 27-year-old male sus­pect was ar­rested by York Re­gional Po­lice con­cern­ing an ab­duc­tion that took place in the town of Rich­mond Hill. On Aug. 23, a fe­male vic­tim was kid­napped in the area of High Tech Road and Sil­ver Lin­den Drive. The in­ci­dent took place around 2:50 a.m. Video ev­i­dence shows the woman ring­ing the door­bell of a res­i­dence only to be ap­proached by the armed as­sailant, who dragged her into his car and drove away. The ac­cused is fac­ing a to­tal of nine charges.

The York Re­gional Po­lice HoldUp Unit is ask­ing for pub­lic as­sis­tance in iden­ti­fy­ing a male sus­pect re­spon­si­ble for a bank rob­bery in the city of Vaughan. On June 15, po­lice ar­rived at a bank in the area of Bathurst Street and Stee­les Av­enue West in re­la­tion to an armed rob­bery that had just taken place. The sus­pect was armed with a hand­gun and wore a go­rilla mask as a dis­guise. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion is on­go­ing, and any­one with in­for­ma­tion is asked to come for­ward.

York Re­gional Po­lice is seek­ing as­sis­tance with iden­ti­fy­ing a fe­male sus­pect in re­la­tion to a series of thefts that oc­curred at two re­tire­ment homes in Rich­mond Hill. The sus­pect first en­tered a re­tire­ment home on July 30 in the El­gin Mills Road East and Bayview Av­enue area. She stole $95 from a male vic­tim who be­lieved she was a staff mem­ber. On Aug. 18, the same sus­pect in­fil­trated a se­cond re­tire­ment home in the El­gin Road East and Yonge Street area, walk­ing away with at least $850 in cash.

York Re­gional Po­lice Or­ga­nized Crime Bureau has seized over $500,000 in syn­thetic drugs, charg­ing seven peo­ple for mul­ti­ple crimes in­volv­ing pos­ses­sion and traf­fick­ing of il­licit sub­stances. On Aug. 22, un­der­cover po­lice had enough ev­i­dence to pro­ceed with mul­ti­ple ar­rests and search war­rants, lead­ing to the seizure of two kilo­grams of ke­tamine and 10 ounces of co­caine. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion is still on­go­ing, with one sus­pect still wanted in re­la­tion to these crimes.

A coun­ter­feit goods in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­ducted by York Re­gional Po­lice has re­sulted in the seizure of thou­sands of items from Pa­cific Mall. In Au­gust, in­ves­ti­ga­tors took more than 200 items along with pho­tos and other goods to New York City, where brand rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous com­pa­nies helped them de­ter­mine that the goods seized were, in fact, coun­ter­feit. Re­tail­ers who know­ingly sell coun­ter­feit goods can re­ceive fines of up to $1 mil­lion and up to five years in prison.